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The Incredible Egg

Hannah’s seventh-grade science class tried an experiment involving an egg, vinegar, corn syrup, and water. Her observations include not only the outcomes of the different steps in the procedure, but also her personal reactions to the experiment.

The Incredible Egg

Procedure:

On October 5, I gathered a large Styrofoam cup, an egg, some vinegar, some corn syrup, and some water. Before I started the lab, I weighed the egg on a scale. Because the egg would just roll off the scale if I set it down by itself, I weighed the cup, and then added the egg. After I knew how much the egg weighed, I poured enough vinegar in the cup to submerge the egg. I then covered the top of the cup with plastic wrap and set the egg aside. The next day, I washed the egg and the cup and weighed the egg. Then I poured in enough corn syrup to cover the egg, and I once again covered the cup with plastic wrap and set it aside. The third and final day of this lab, I cleaned the egg and the cup and weighed the egg again. For the last part of the experiment, I covered the egg with water, put plastic wrap over the cup, and set it aside, following up the next day with another weigh-in.

Observations:

After letting the egg sit in vinegar for 24 hours, the hard part of the shell had been eaten off. The part of the soft shell that was left was very smooth and slimy. The egg weighed a little less than the day before because the heaviest part of the shell was gone. The egg also had a small dent in it because the outside was so fragile. When I tried to wash off the extra vinegar, I almost dropped the egg because it was so slippery.

On the second day, when I washed off the corn syrup, the egg was very light. It had numerous dents in it, and it was so fragile that I could barely wash it off. The egg was very slippery and extremely slimy, but I managed to hold on. It felt like I was holding a blown-up balloon in my hand—that’s how light the egg was.

On the third day, when I took the egg out of the water, I found that it was a little bit heavier than the day before. There were not as many dents in the egg, so it was much easier to wash off. The egg was still a little bit slippery and kind of slimy, but overall, it was in much better shape than the day before.

Conclusions:

I discovered that the shell peeled off in the vinegar because of an acidic reaction. The acid in the vinegar peeled away the shell.

When the egg was soft and light from the corn syrup, it was because water had left the egg to cause a state of equilibrium. The water had made the egg heavy and somewhat sturdy.

When the egg was in the water, the water diffused into the egg to cause a state of equilibrium, and that is why the egg was heavier on that day.

I really had a fun time experimenting with my egg. I learned a lot about diffusion and equilibrium.